Published by Douglas Messerli, the World Cinema Review features full-length reviews on film from the beginning of the industry to the present day, but the primary focus is on films of intelligence and cinematic quality, with an eye to exposing its readers to the best works in international film history.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Daniel Ribeiro | Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (The Way He Looks)

gay teens in love

by
Douglas Messerli

Daniel
Ribeiro (writer, based on his short film I
Don’t Want to Go Back Alone, and director) Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (The
Way He Looks) / 2014

Daniel
Ribeiro’s 2014 Brazilian film, The Way He
Looks belongs to a growing tradition of teenage films in which gay teen
males fall in love for the first time. Generally, these movies—although often
touching and positive—portray the difficulties of coming out at that early age
and the problems that result with peers and family.

The
Way He Looks is somewhat different simply because the hero of this tale,
Leonardo (Ghilherme Lobo) not only does, at first, not know that he is gay, but
has been blind from birth. He has never seen a man or woman, and obviously any
attraction to someone arises not from what they look like, but from what they
say and how they relate to him.

Certainly the young Leo has difficulties
with his peers and family. Some of his classmates taunt him for being blind,
complaining of the noise his braille writing machine makes, and sneaking around
him in order to trip him up when he attempts to walk alone. His parents, on the
other hand, are overprotective, insisting he call when he daily returns home,
and delimiting his activities. As a kind of reaction against their attempts to
insulate him from harm, he secretly plots, with his girlfriend Giovana (Tess
Amorim), to join a student exchange program. His plans are dashed, however,
when he discovers that he must first receive his parent’s permission.

Despite these few difficulties, however,
Ribeiro’s Leo seems to be, if a bit bored by his life, a terribly balanced kid,
liked by many of his classmates and beloved by his parents. He cannot know,
also, how beautiful he is.

When a new boy, Gabriel (Fabio Audi),
arrives, he readily sits in the empty seat behind Leonardo, which some of his
classmates have previously refused. Girls in school are immediately attracted
to Gabriel, whose looks Gia praises to her friend, and the most promiscuous
girl in the school, Karina moves in for the kill.

Strangely, however, although he remains
affable to women, Gabriel is somewhat standoffish, and quickly develops a
friendship with both Gia (who is hardly a beauty) and Leonardo. When students
are assigned projects that require same-sex partners, Gabriel suggests and he
and Leonardo team up.

Although there are some big differences
between them—Gabriel likes popular music, while Leonardo (in real life, the
actor is also a ballet dancer) prefers classical—but they seem quite ready to
share their experiences, Gabriel attempting to show Leonardo how to dance, and Leonardo
attempting to share his Braille alphabet. Before long, Gabriel is helping his
new friend experience things he never before: taking him to a movie (where he
whispers much of the imagery), taking him on a late-night outing to “see” a
lunar eclipse (which he explains with the use of rocks), and taking Leo on
bicycle rides. All of these activities, of course, involve touch, so the very
tactile nature of their relationship affects them both.

Before long, Leonardo begins to
comprehend that he is falling in love. When Gabriel “accidentally” forgets his
hoodie at Leo’s place, (an incident which, Ribeiro admits happened with when he was a teen) Leo holds the coat close to him, smelling it and masturbating
simultaneously.

Both boys are confused by their
feelings, and their other friendships help to stoke that confusion. Gia is
angered by Leonardo’s seeming abandonment of their friendship, and is
ultimately angered by Gabriel’s seeming attentions to Katrina.

Obviously, Leonardo cannot, literally
speaking, see what’s going on. He can only sense that Gabriel may be pulling
away. When he attends a party, at Gabriel’s urging, Gabriel appears to leave
him, forcing Leo to participate in a seemingly innocent kissing game. Both Gia
and Leonardo have previously complained that they have not yet ever seriously
kissed someone, and it appears that, perhaps Leonardo, will now have his first
“real” kiss. One of his hecklers, however, picks up a dog posing it to meet
Leonardo’s ready lips. Fortunately Gia sees what is happening and forces her
friend to leave. Gabriel joins him and offers to drive him home his bike. But
rebelling against their good intentions, just as he has with his parents, Leo
complains that they will not even allow him his first kiss.Impulsively Gabriel quickly kisses him on the
lips and speeds off.

At a camping retreat a few days later
Gabriel tells Leonardo that he had been drunk at the party that he can’t
remember anything that happened, including, so it appears, the kissing
incident. Again hurt, as it appears that Gabriel is once again courting
Katrina, Leo meets up with Gia, openly telling her that he believes he is in
love with Gabriel. Taken aback by the news, and again a bit hurt by her
life-long friends’ commitment to someone else, she at first seems angered, but
soon after, when Gabriel appears bored by Katrina’s attentions, encourages him
to talk with Leo.

Once again, the two boys seriously
communicate, Leo asking Gabriel outright if he has “hooked up” with Katrina.
Gabriel admits that she has made the attempt, but that he has refused her
because he likes someone else. When prodded who that someone else might be,
Gabriel claims that he has already briefly kissed this person. When Leo
perceives that he is the one, the two quickly engage in some serious kissing.

A last scene, somewhat later, shows the
three teens walking home, Leo and Gabriel arm in arm. When the same taunters
tease the two for what looks like a “queer” relationship, Gabriel links his
hands with Leo, proving that their relationship is a true one, strangely
quieting their hecklers.

Surely, Ribeiro’s world is a highly
romantic one. One can imagine, even today, that if two such students had so
publically proclaimed their gay love, there may have been far more serious
consequences. But that is, in many respects, just why The Way He Looks is such a joyful alternative. These young people
are allowed to enjoy the romance which has developed so innocently and
naturally, instead of being punished or undergoing deep angst. And even if we
recognize this work as being somewhat of a fairytale, it is one we can all hope
might soon exist in real life—and will change all of our lives. Or
perhaps…things may already have, if this film is any reflection, changed.